Delhi’s new mayor to be elected on January 6

The first session will be held almost a month after the Aam Aadmi Party won the municipal polls on December 7, getting a majority of the votes in 134 out of 250 wards. While BJP won 104 seats, nine went to Congress and the remaining to independent candidates.

In its first year, the mayor, as per rules, will be a woman. Fifty per cent of seats in the municipal polls are reserved for women. Out of the 134 AAP elected councillors, 71 are women.

The proposal to convene the first meeting of the civic body was moved by the commissioner (MCD) on December 12, to the urban development department, requesting L-G’s approval.

“Thereafter, the file approved by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also minister (urban development) and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was received in Raj Niwas on December 14, and the L-G accorded his approval on the same day itself,” the officials said.

As per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, “The corporation shall, at its first meeting in each year, elect one of its members to the chairperson, to be known as the mayor and another member to be the deputy mayor of the corporation.” The Act also says that the presiding officer at the meeting for the election of the mayor shall be a councillor who is not a candidate for such election and shall be nominated by the L-G.

Apart from the elected members, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi, and one-fifth of the members of the Delhi Assembly (14) are nominated by the Speaker by rotation every year, and 10 people are nominated by the Administrator (Aldermen without voting rights).